InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has launched its 2015 trends report, which identifies the growing importance for companies to build both brand and organisational trust to ensure sustainable growth.

The report, Building Trust Capital: The new business imperative in the Kinship Economy, highlights the need to not only focus on the three Cs of organisational wealth: financial capital, intellectual capital and human capital – but a fourth C must be added: trust capital. Trust capital represents the confidence consumers have in the credibility, integrity, leadership and responsibility of an organisation and its brands.

This report is the third in a series based on research spanning a three-year period, involving nearly 40,000 interviews with international travellers worldwide.

In addition to the need for trust capital, another trend highlighted by the report is the need to strategically manage both baby boomers (born between 1946-1964) and millennials (born between 1982-2000).

According to the research, millennials prefer experiential relationships with brands, whereas boomers look for brand relationships that go smoothly. Millennials are more apt to be ‘invisible travellers’ than boomers because they are people who can move through the guest journey without caring for people-enabled contact. 67 per cent of boomers say they would prefer to call a hotel and speak with ‘real’ people on-site for information, versus 56 per cent of millennials.

Another trend illustrated in the report is that personalisation is becoming more and more critical in terms of connecting with consumers, however, personalisation leads to more choice – which in turn leads to complexity and uncertainty in decision-making. Along with the desire for more choices, consumers are looking for ways to simplify their lives. By creating trust, uncertainty can be reduced and decision-making is easier for the consumer, according to the report.

“Our research has shown that building ‘trust capital’ plays a critical role in delivering sustainable high quality revenue growth,” said Richard Solomons, CEO of IHG. “To build trust, organisations must ensure they adopt a trust agenda and focus on personalisation, whilst being aware of the boundaries and develop a deep understanding of how guest needs are changing by demographic and by geography.”

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